Since my daughter was about five months old, I’ve worked from home part-time.

It started off with bookkeeping, then a little light business and taxation consulting. By the time she’d had her first birthday, I was writing professionally for websites, acting as a virtual assistant to a few small businesses and continuing the bookkeeping and consulting aspect. Then, in the past six months, I’ve added on some interior design and website design work. In addition to being a full-time, stay at home mom.

Just call me a Jill of all trades.

I’ve done the bulk of this with absolutely no formal childcare arrangement until my daughter started attending a home daycare two mornings a week for two hours at a time. In addition to that, she started having scheduled visits with her dad during the weekend days.

Other parents I’ve known have driven to the office after dropping their kids at a full-time daycare, and have been a bit of a slave to sicknesses, holidays and the like, ending up with their whole work routine thrown off. Other parents who worked from home have staggered their work schedules with their partners so as to always have one parent taking care of their kids – unless a family member was available.

I have done the opposite of most employed parents I know – I haven’t made daycare a priority and I haven’t chosen to work during finite nine-to-five types of hours. I’ve chosen to look for work that allowed me to be at home, and a full-time mom during the day.

I’ve used the time when she’s with her father to accomplish large projects’ work, and the hour or so during the day when she’s occupied with books, toys or television to look for new jobs, clients and rattle off the smaller tasks. Most of all, I’ve use her sleeping periods to get a large majority of my work load accomplished.

This might mean that some nights I don’t get to bed until it’s the next day, and often I have to send a quick email to a client to let them know that I’ll be working on their project after 10pm.

For the most part, it means I have the ability to work full-time hours without being away from her.

This is a positive for so many reasons: I don’t miss out on any stage of her development, sick days don’t tend to throw off my work life and I’m saving a large sum on childcare costs.

The other positive to this is that it’s sustainable. Yes, I may not get to take on the jobs that I really want which take up extra time and pay less, and sometimes I end up writing about something I’m not very passionate about, but I’m still able to take on new work all the time and the bills get paid. Which makes homeschooling two years from now – when other children are entering kindergarten – seem viable.

A negative? It’s very hard to maintain my focus and motivation after twelve hours with a head-strong toddler. Some nights, I just want to collapse into a pile of couch potato. Also, I’m constantly looking for new jobs, nervous that the ones I have may disappear – but I don’t have a lot of time to apply for them and I’m hyper-aware that I may take on too much work and have to get some done during the day, which would defeat the whole point.

Tell me, what priorities have you rearranged to be home with or more available with your kids?

Before I had my daughter, when I was still in the thick of pregnancy and imagining how blissful parenting might be, I developed a lot of ideals about how I would raise my baby. Most of these ideals, I’m not ashamed to admit came from me seeing what some parents would do – harried moms in the grocery store, dads pushing toddlers on the swings, families eating out at restaurants – and deciding who was doing the right thing and who left something to be imagined.

It’s so easy to be judgemental when you’re not in someone else’s shoes, after all. Seeing the mom with the whining child hand over the toy,  junk food or her cup from Starbucks led me into a mantra, “I will never have a child who acts like that, and if my child should act out in public, I would never reward the behavior.” When I saw families evaluating their renting choices at the video store, getting 30 seconds to pick out Mom and Dad’s flick and 15 minutes evaluating the child’s options, I saw that as the death of the parents’ identity. I was never going to be a different person, totally subservient to my child.

I read a lot of parenting books in those nine months of pregnancy, and because of them, thought I was pretty prepared. I signed up for a few websites’ email updates, such as Baby Center, and would find myself wandering the Internet, gleaning knowledge from any list I came upon, even from sources you might not expect to find knowledge. I was subscribed to or buying a few parenting magazines a month by the time my daughter was born.

Still, she took her first breath and I was suddenly aware that I knew nothing. She knocked most of those tips and tricks and ideals out of me within her first few months. I don’t know how, exactly – it might have had something to do with the lack of sleep – but suddenly, I felt as if I had no clue what I was doing.

So, I looked for new sources of information. I found positive examples everywhere, now that I had a new perspective. I found out that, gasp, it’s not just websites and books devoted to parenting the right way that would teach me the lessons I needed to learn.

Like, from my mother-in-law. I am aware that she should have been an enemy to any confidence I had in my parenting. Instead, on a crazed day when my daughter was about five months old, I asked her what she thought I should be doing differently. She said she thought I was doing exactly what worked, and that that’s all you can do when you have a spirited baby.

Like, from parent-content-created websites. It’s all well and fine to ask the experts – the pediatricians, child psychologists and dieticians – but I found the most helpful advice and came from Moms and Dads who were putting their own words into action all the time.

Like, from mommy and daddy blogs. Sometimes, all you can really do is commiserate. Others, you need someone’s different eyes to see the solution to a conflict or problem. Mom and Dad bloggers often offer a different perspective that brings new concepts to mind. For example, in blogging about my daughter’s food allergies and how they have effected her mood swings and tantrums, I’ve accidentally given a few parents the idea to have their child tested for wheat allergies – and at least one has tested positively for celiac’s disease – an often silent, very damaging condition.

So, I’d like to know, where do you look to for parenting cues and why?

A few months ago, a friend directed me toward a website that’s become mandatory daily reading. It’s built upon the premise that everyone has at some point had occasion to own a little (or a lot) of furniture from Ikea, and may not want their {insert Swedish-named item here} to look like every one else’s.

For parents furnishing kids’ rooms, Ikea is a pretty obvious solution to the question of where to find inexpensive furnishings that have a little bit of character – nearly everything they sell that is geared toward kids’ and teenagers’ sense of style seems to be priced the lowest, in the funkiest colors.

But, like I said, with every college kid, twenty-something, and decorator on a budget seeking domestic bliss in Ikea’s catalogues, it seems likely that you’ll see the exact same room set-up in two different people’s homes. This is where Ikea Hacker comes in.

With an apparent 35000 readers, Ikea Hacker provides editor and reader-submitted ‘hacks’ – things you can do yourself or with minimal help, to spruce up Ikea furniture, make it look unique or use it in alternative ways. If you do what I did and simply sign up for email updates, once a day (if that) you get a single email with the hacks they’ve published in since your last update. I’ve got to admit, some of those idea have made me want to run out and buy a drill, saw, paint and various shelving accessories.

For babies and kids, Ikea Hacker is like, the best thing ever. Why? Take a look at my favorite hacks and maybe you’ll see why.

1. Wonder how to create an elegant nursery with ample storage for less than $300? What if it’s in a 700-square foot apartment that literally offers no bedroom space? This post tells how one mom went DIY.

2. If you’re always looking for creative, hidden storage for books, large toys and other items you want your kids to have easy access to (and is super easy to clean up, too), I like Smilla’s under-bed rolling book storage. I think I’d end up using it for stuffed animals, though,  rotating it so that the opening is on top. In fact, if I were going to pursue this project, I’d add in as many Apa storage boxes as I could under the length of the bed – then use each on for a difference form of storage.

3. There’s always this assumption out there that parents, especially moms, like to do crafts with their kids. I don’t. Crafts and I don’t get along at all. But this play-kitchen project looks like something I could get creative with my daughter for. That is, until I saw these kitchens and these (there’s even more ideas here and here).

4. What little girl hasn’t eyed a princess bed with stars in her eyes (or down-right demanded one)? Having a unique, royal, sparkling place to rest a weary princess head might not seem like a huge priority to you, but to her? It’s the difference between asking for ‘Just one more drink of water’ twelve times in a row, or settling to sleep as soon as she’s tucked into bed. A princess bed – something I never thought I would want for my daughter.

There’s about five billion other ideas and links on Ikea Hacker for children; there’s even more for other areas of the home and your lifestyle. I fully recommend getting some meatballs, a coffee and stretching on on your sofa, because once you start looking through all of Ikea Hacker’s archives, it’s hard to leave them.

Once upon a time, the phrase Mommy’s little helper had more to do with a prescription for Valium than a contribution (or contributor) to the household chores.

Things have changed since those retro times when mom’s a-line dress was perfectly pressed, dad was waiting for a martini after work and the kids were quietly entertaining themselves, out of sight and mind.

Parents now encourage their children to not only be seen, but to be loud and proud about being kids. Parents are often working full-time outside of the home in addition to balancing household issues and child-rearing.

Now, the question to parents is Who doesn’t feel like they need a Valium every once in a while?

There’s always ways to cut back on the craze, whether that means by cutting corners or finding new ways to complete or delegate tasks – it’s often just about finding the right ‘Mommy’s little helper‘. Like maybe some of the following friends and I can rely on to simplify our 301-actionable-items kind of days:

Google

I haven’t been subtle when I’ve talked about my love for Google. Not only is their online calendar application invaluable to me, for getting things done and remembering deadlines, but I reply on them for my email, sharing documents, keeping up to date in news with their reader and I use Google Maps to figure out where I’m going pretty frequently. Check out the top navigation on any Google page for links to online applications that might lend a hand.

Trick out your iPhone

For those of you unafraid of a little application help on your iPhone (seriously, what can’t you do with an iPhone?), try adding Zenbe to keep track of lists, finding a reliable app for using most of your favorite social sites like Facebook and Twitter while mobile, and even add individual apps for fun tasks like sending ecards.

Caffeine

Regardless of whether you drink coffee, decaf, green tea, energy drinks, black tea or ceremonial  matcha, everyone seems to have a poison that gets their brain moving and keeps them vertical. I used to drink three to ten cups of coffee a day, then replaced that java with chai because I was worried about how much caffeine  I was getting (and how often I was visiting Starbucks).

Television

Whether you’re flipping it on to give yourself a half hour of quiet time while your child’s glued to the screen, or you’re relaxing in front of your favorite reality show, television has become important to the modern household. It’s integral to relaxation, learning, socializing and more.

Therapy

Whether using tradition psychotherapy or a serious session with your best friend, talking has become intregral to parents’ mental health. Well, it was probably always needed – now it’s accepted and encouraged. This can mean venting about your toddler’s penchant for flushing things down the toilet, or your own father’s lack of emotional connection with you – whatever you need to get off your chest.

Reading

These days, you can learn anything from anywhere, a book is always available about any subject and you can probably even download it to your mobile reader. Blogs, news, books, magazines, newsletters, plays….there’s more written word than we will ever know what to do with – and it can often help us solve a problem, reach out to someone, educate or even just shut off our brain from the outside world.

What do you consider your little helpers for getting through the day with your sanity intact, a reasonable level of accomplishment and milk in the fridge?

Over at Expecting Words, a site for parents expecting a baby, they had an article entitled, “The Top Five Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me BEFORE the Baby Came“. Of the list the author write, I guess the #1 thing on it for me was, “You are not alone”.

When you are a first time parent and you’re alone with a crying newborn, you feel like no one else has gone through this pain before.  Even your spouse would not understand.

Take my first pregnancy.  It did not go smoothly.  I was high risk because I’d had an unexplained stroke years earlier. I was blessed to find an O.B. who took great pains to diagnose my condition, and managed my pregnancy with blood thinners.  I whined the whole 9 months about taking injections and about being induced, but when Amelia was born, it was the happiest moment of my life.

I was so confident of how things were going, that I never did prenatal testing. Imagine my surprise to discover my baby had a rare form of Down syndrome called Mosaicism.

What you should also know is that none of my friends or family have children with any disabilities.

I had also just relocated to a new area, and onto top it off, I suffered post-partum depression.  This was a few years before Brooke Shields came out on the topic, and I had no idea what was wrong with me. I felt too much fear and shame over my own thoughts to actually talk to anyone about the thoughts that were so alien in my head.  I felt like a monster.

That’s why I became a blogger back in 2003.  I learned that there are parents out there who’ve been through everything: post-partum depression, unexpectedly disabled children, serious health issues in babies,  the work-or-stay-at-home struggle, financial problems, child care problems…the list goes on and on.

I believe that this sense of loneliness is what is driving so many parents to blogging, Twitter, and Facebook, especially in the last year.  So many parents are going it alone for a good part of their week, thanks to economic factors, like a spouse working more than one job, or long distance travel and separation.  Those of us who are home alone for long periods of time with young children can find companionship, solace, and encouragement online.   We’re discovering that yes, child birth is difficult and painful, no, potty training is not easy, and yes, post-partum hormones change the way women think.

We’re also discovering that you can have hope with a chronically sick child, that a disabled child is no less beautiful than one who developed typically, and that there are many ways to teach and raise a child.  The internet has given parents tools they never had before to be secure, confident, independent parents doing a better job than they even imagined.

And when you are starting to feel good about your parenting, you can pay it forward by reaching out to another new parent and telling them something good about being a parent.

I’m blessed to live in this age, what about you?  What is the number one thing you wish you knew before becoming a parent?  Technology  helped me cope; what has helped you succeed in your journey in parenting?

I know, that title seems pretty obvious, right? Any mom who takes the steps to quit smoking, especially early in (or ideally, before) her child’s life should get bonus good-mom points.

But this post isn’t about feeding into a stereotype that good moms don’t smoke. It’s not where I drone on about the benefits of modeling healthy behavior and how quitting smoking, or your child never seeing you smoke in their life will make them x% more likely to never start smoking themselves.

This post is about how my habits changed because I quit smoking on Tuesday.

I admit it, right out of the gate: I’m no stranger to yelling. Well, yelling might be too strong a word. When my daughter was younger, I would speak very mono-tonally in a barely-hear-able voice and that was enough (and I think spooky) to get her to stop whatever naughtiness she was getting into, after she’d ignore my repeated, normal-voiced requests. It worked. Until it stopped working.

Then, I started talking through my teeth. Not too loud, but with a certain obvious restrained anger in my voice. When that stopped working, I graduated it to a raised voice. Not a yell – at least, not anything close to the yelling that her father and I used to engage in before we split up – but not a normal volume and tone, either.

Point being, my daughter hears me raise my voice with some regularity. Bad behavior days can bring about the angry-mom voice quite frequently; good days mean that it maybe only gets used when teeth brushing is being argued.

As a single parent, the thought of quitting smoking was a little terrifying because of how often I’ve used cigarettes to cope with the stress of a toddler’s meltdown, to break up the monotony of a reading marathon, or to eat up time during the 14th viewing of Dora Saves the Mermaids. Mostly, the stress factor was my concern – what would I do when she’d been naughty, been sent to her room for a time-out and I was quite livid?

I have literally no stress-coping skills after more than 16 years of (off and on) smoking.

I predicted that I would be quite antagonizable for the first few days to a week. I assumed that I might go from fine and happy-ish to a stark-raving lunatic because a cup of milk got spilt. I knew, at the very least, that I would have less patience than usual – and I’m not known for being a patient person to begin with.

So, to make me quitting smoking easier on my daughter, I took two steps:

I’ve told her that I’m quitting and that it can be really hard for people to do and I’ve overcompensated, blaming when I’ve become impatient with her behavior (in part) on not smoking.

So I’ve gone to the opposite extreme, telling myself that every time I’m about to raise my voice, it’s not fair to her because I’d be taking quitting smoking out on her.

The result? I haven’t raised my voice once in three days. Except when she obviously couldn’t hear me the first 14 times I said something.

I just read over at CNN that about the new season of “Jon and Kate Plus Eight” starting today.  If you haven’t seen it, this is a reality show that follows around a family struggling to raise eight children, 6 of whom were sextuplets.

Last year, a friend of mine raved about this show.  I tried to watch an episode.  Maybe it was just my poor selection of an episode that involved a vomiting virus running through the household, but I couldn’t stand it.  I was also a bit suspicious.  I have 2 kids and they certainly aren’t as neat and organized as those children.  It was unsettling and made me feel like a crummy mom.  I mean, Kate, the mom, actually organized them to go caroling!  Then again, maybe when you have that many, you need to be militant to keep order.

Unfortunately, Jon and Kate just got divorced.

Now, you cannot turn on the TV or pass a gossip mag rack without hearing something about this former couple.   I blog heavily about my family, both here and on my personal blog, but something about this disturbed me.  It was reported to me that they’ve been separated for 2 years.  (Didn’t they just get their vows renewed?)  And believe me, raising kids can be hard on a marriage, and I can’t imagine the difficulties you face with 8 children.

Trouble is, I’m tired of it. Maybe I think it’s someone else’s turn in the limelight, or maybe Jon and Kate need to focus on co-parenting their kids more.  They are making good money from the show, and I’m not going to malign that.  It takes a lot of money to raise and educate all those children and they need all the help they can get.  I’m just sick of them, and like I said, I don’t even watch the show.  (Plus, don’t they need to change the title now?)

I’d like to see some REAL role models on TV.  Marriage is difficult enough without maligning spouses.  Let’s hear from a family that has stayed together.  How about this?  Nearly 80% of marriages with an autistic child get divorced or separated, and my husband and I are stronger than ever with two disabled children (one with autism).  OK, just kidding.  I have zero  desire to ever turn my family into a reality TV show.

There are lots of other great ideas, though.  How about a show about a single mom? Or dad?  I, for one, would watch that.  I’m astounded by the amazing people who do this job of parenting alone.  Or, how about a show on a family who adopts disabled children?  Or a family coping with a medical issue with their child?

And yet, as I read through that list, the thought of turning people’s lives into a “reality show” sickens me.  What flies for reality TV usually is not the uplifting, the inspirational, or the encouraging; it’s the backbiting, the arguing, and the pettiness.  Witness any “Real Housewives” show or “Wife Swap”: these shows don’t often illustrate the best of its characters.  Certainly, some of this is creative editing.  As a society, we are fascinated by the ugly side of human nature, but for me, I’d rather see triumph, encouragement and inspiration every time.

On the other hand, “Jon and Kate” now have a chance to show how to parent such a large brood of children through a divorce.  If they are learn and grow from this experience, maybe they can help other parents struggling to cope with the same problem.  For the sake of their kids, I sure hope so, but I’m still not gonna watch.

So weigh in:  Do we need more inspirational shows, or is reality TV a bigger success just the way it is.  What do you think is a great idea for family-positive reality TV?

Last week, as I discussed Amelia with her service provider, the woman stopped me and said, “Ok, enough negative, let’s discuss her positives.  What does Amelia excel in?”

It threw me back a bit. When your child has a learning disability,  you are usually asked about the negatives.  I know this a tendency of our backwards culture to work on improving weaknesses rather than focusing on strengths.  As a parent interested in strengths-based education, I think a lot about my daughters’ positive behaviors but a week of tantrums and disobedience misplaced my focus.

I can easily see how over time this would wear and tear on how a parent views their child, especially after behaviors escalate.  I think it’s time, right now, for those of us who have children who are a “handful” or have special needs to step back and take a deep breath and…

Celebrate Your Kids!
What are some positives about your kids that you can laud, or better yet, get them to be proud of for themselves?  (That is, say, “You must be very proud of yourself!”)  Every kid has something, maybe a lot of things, that get them excited, jazzed and that they can do well.  Thing “big positive”, and then think of something good they did that day. Then write them down (blog anyone?).

Amelia

• Big Positive:  She is amazing in the water. This astonishes me as I have a deep seated fear of water. She is fearless in all things, but we’ve just started swim lessons and she’s a natural.  I’m so proud I think, What is involved in Olympic swimming?
  
• Daily Positive: I managed to get her to make pee in the potty last night. This is a huge because she is terribly resistant (and a little scared I think). I had her dance, sing, jump, call her aunt and gave her ice cream. Woohoo, Amelia!

Zoe

• Big Positive:  She is still young but she is the puzzle queen and has been reciting letters on her own for nearly a year.  If we approach her dedication in a positive way, she can have a great future using those skills in a career.
• Daily Positive:  Last night, she came out of the bath without a big tantrum.  Woohoo!

Celebrate Yourself!
OK, so that’s the kids, but as I was listening to Joyce Meyer’s broadcast yesterday, she was discussing that instead of focus on what we can’t do, we should take stock of what we can do.

It was no coincidence that she was speaking to a parent as she said this.  Moms in particular tend to downplay their achievements.  As a parent, pause and write down what you are doing right.  My list includes working daily on improving my temper, being proactive about my kids’ nutrition, researching parenting techniques and integrating the best of what works, becoming a pro at diffusing tantrums, expert time-out giver, good at recruiting at least Amelia to help out, saying nightly prayer with Amelia, getting kids to bed successfully every night.  What does your list look like?

Celebrate Others!
Right now, you know parents and kids who are struggling in some area.  Now that you’ve taken the time to uplift your children and yourself, get busy and send a card or greeting to a kid who just got potty trained or learned to ride a bike or any other great kid achievement.  Small children are learning new stuff daily, so think of something, and don’t forget to tell the parents you’re thinking of them too.

OK, tell us something fantastic about your kids and what’s great about your parenting skills.  I’d love to hear!

I was never going to be the mother who threw elaborate birthday parties, full of soon-to-be sugar-comatose children, mainstream children’s characters and balloons. In fact, I always figured I’d do something different for each year – something special to truly commemorate the occasion, like a trip or a new experience.

This is no longer so.

For my daughter’s second birthday, I found myself up late the night before, preparing enough food to feed twice as many as I expected, organizing the over-priced Disney Princess paperware I found at a local card store and stressed to the max. I probably dropped a few hundred dollars on that party that she still doesn’t remember – a party wherein half of everything went to waste and children were way too over-stimulated to have a good time.

I was planning on repeating that mistake this year. Right down to the characters that would litter every plate, cup, goody bag and napkin. Of course, I’ve been saved by the fact that half of my daughter’s friends are on vacation, and I will be attending the BlogHer conference on the actual anniversary of her birth.

We decided to just have a small family dinner last weekend. She got to pick the restaurant and cake, and to open her presents immediately afterwards. She was plenty happy, I wasn’t stressed, and I didn’t spend the contents of my savings’ account, either.

One thing I have learned to reign in is my ability to over-do the presents. After her second Christmas, one I’d started shopping for three months ahead of time (and didn’t stop until I had half of a coat closet full of presents for her), I decided to cut back a lot. Now, I pick a fixed dollar amount to spend on her, and I buy her things that I know she will love that encourage learning and creativity, not every thing I see in a store that she would like.

But, what would have happened if her friends had been in town and I had been, too?

I had planned a longer party, figuring that most of the attendees were no longer napping and capable of partying harder without meltdowns. There would be lunch, cake, presents and my favorite part, a photo-walk. Each little one would get their own disposable camera, to take pictures of anything and everything they saw and instead of goody bags, they would receive an album a week later with all of their photos in it.

Seemed kind of perfect to me – except for the cost factor. Disposable cameras aren’t cheap, and of course there would be a fee for printing photos and getting each child their own album. Lunch and a 20-person cake would be more money. Decorations, still more.

I was stressing out, just thinking about how easy it would be for me to spend half a month’s rent on a four hour party.

Of course, after the inexpensive (yet still special) festivities ended, I found American Greeting’s new kids collection. A collection that includes, amongst many other things, printable party sets featuring every toddler’s favorite character, Dora the Explorer, in fine princess form.

It was truly a face-palm moment, as I pondered how much stress I’d allowed myself to take on about the potential decorations when they were only a mouse-click away.

About two weeks ago, my new hard drive started to make a funny noise and within minutes, it died.  Typically, I back my stuff up, but life’s been so hectic lately that I didn’t realize I’d forgotten to back up until it was too late.  I lost a few key documents, but most upsetting of all, I lost some photos of my kids.

Hopefully, you back up, but if you don’t, I’m going to go over some ways to protect your important items, especially those photos.

1. DVDs. This is not a method I recommend, but it’s better than nothing.  Burn your data to a high quality DVD.  You may need software, such as Roxio, to do it.  The downside is that DVD’s don’t hold too much data. Worse than that, they are fairly delicate and your data can easily become corrupt or irretrievable.
2. iPod. iPods, especially older ones, hold a lot of data, so in a pinch, they are good to back up items such as photos.  The downside is that if you are backing up multiple versions of things like documents, you may run out of space more quickly.  This is a good as a temporary fix.
3. Upload to your website. For those of you that have a personal site, you can use your FTP and store items there.  You will want to protect your data by making it non-writable or setting up a password. (Check your web hosting service for how to do this.)  This is not a preferred method, though, because your data is not secure, but it can serve as a temporary solution until you find a permanent one.
4. External hard drive. I’m married to a guy who works with technology for a living, so a spare hard drive can usually be found in my home.  Not everyone is so lucky, so you may need to purchase one.  Tech magazine CNET recommends Clickfree Portable Backup Drive (320GB) which retails for about $150, if you have a lot you need to store.
5. Online Service. To me, this looks like the best option.   A service will upload and protect your data for you.  Mozy is offering a plan for personal use at $4.95 a month.  What’s nice about this option is that it’s secure and it’s off site.  So if the unthinkable happens, like a fire, your files are still protected.  You can also automate it to backup certain files or folders at a specific time.  Currently, it looks you can sign up for free for 2GB of back up space.  That sounds like a bargain to me.
6. Multiple backups. I recently heard a story where a guy lost three separate, secure versions of the novel he was working on. That cautionary tale shows you that no method is full-proof, but this is a rare happening.  Storing data in multiple places is good idea.  I am so grateful that I put most of my photos on Webshots.  I lost much less than I would have if I had not  been using that service. From now on, I’ll upload my photos to Webshots as soon as I get to my camera to my PC.

I hope this has been helpful. If you haven’t backed up your important data, use one of the temporary methods above and do it right now. Then look at the other longer term methods and see what works for you.

Do you have any other backup methods or services that are affordable and work for you?  Do you have a horror story about lost data to share?